Thanksgiving

If you stop by our house and we haven't seen you in awhile, watch out! This is what happened when Mike and Laurel popped in to say and "Hi" and drop off some Pyrex. :)

We had some new friends over this year and our kids had a fabulous time together!

I put Mandy in charge of setting the table, so if it's all wrong blame her, not me. ;) She and Rachel even folded the napkins. Aren't they cute?

We stuck the little kids in the kitchen so they could make a huge mess if they so pleased.

Our new friends Wendy (and Shawn) just moved to Fort Collins and strangely enough, they are friends with our old friends, the Andersons, that moved to California a few years ago. They are also friends with my stalker friend, Rachel. It's definitely a small world when you're Lutheran.

Dessert was defintiely plentiful that evening. If you wanted something pumpkin you had several choices, if not, your only other choice was the apple pie

that my daughters, Rebecca and Rachel helped me make. It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

We had little doggie guests too, and they were a huge hit with the kids as well as vacuum cleaners. My floors have never been cleaner!

The party didn't end with Thanksgiving day. The Clemmers stayed over, Mandy and I slept in, and then it was off to do some Black Friday shopping. We even dressed similarly and didn't plan that.

Give Thanks

I have a lot to be thankful for from this past Thanksgiving. (Thanks to Kellee for the amazing banner!) Earlier in the week I took a spill down the stairs and hit my back side pretty hard. Did I mention that are stairs are all hardwood? The excruciating pain has made normal, everyday tasks difficult.  If you have been a long time reader of this blog you know that we always have people over for Thanksgiving.  I love having our friends and family over, so canceling Thanksgiving wasn't even an option for me.

The day before Thanksgiving was when a lot of prep work happened. My Lutheran Stud was home in the morning to help lift our 20 lb. bird for me. This has been my favorite turkey brine. It beats making your own when it's super cheap. I stock up when it goes on sale and I just love it. When it's boiling on the stove our children says that our house smells like Christmas. It's awesome and I highly recommend it.
With my little helpers we did a lot of prep work the day before. All of our children love making side dishes. Even Anna said she wanted to help, but quickly changed her mind saying, "Mom, my back hurts."

Our guests arrived and we stuck the little children in the kitchen so they could make all sorts of messes on the floor. ;)

The older children were much too old to be with the little children, so we let them hang out at their very own table.

We had an incredible feast with great company. I wish I had more photos to share, but I really wasn't myself that day. Bummer! Everyone was so gracious and helpful. I couldn't lift a single thing out of the oven and didn't even have the table set, but no one seemed to mind. They enjoyed cracking some great jokes though!

After dinner the men retreated to the garage to translate Greek over cigars and vodka.

We ladies scoured the newspaper ads.
Then we hit the road, while the men stayed behind to put children to bed and play a little poker. I didn't really have a list and thought I'd go along to help stand in line while Keri and Heather shopped, but as it turns out the lines moved so quickly that we never waited long.

 I have to say that what I was most thankful for that evening was our fabulous husbands. We came home to a spotless kitchen and all of the Pyrex had been hand washed!  

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving in our house this year was pretty low key. It was nice and a little quiet. We had a few church members over and that was it. Thanks to my radical (that's what my Lutheran Stud says) father-in-law for sending applewood pellets. We smoked the turkey. I don't think I can make the turkey any other way now. It's got to be smoked.

Rachel was my kitchen helper for the day. That apron just went prefectly with her sweater don't you think? :)

She helped with this apple pie. I tried a different recipe this year. This pie is a winner in my book. It'll be my new go-to pie recipe for sure.

We also had a pumpkin cheesecake made with our garden pumpkins. I'm not a pumpkin fan, but this cheesecake won me over.

These hooligans hung out in the kitchen most of the day hoping to get a little snitch of whatever they could get their hands on. Do you think they got anything?

Another new recipe I tried was Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Pomegrantes and Vanilla-Pecan Butter. Have you ever seen Throwdown with Bobby Flay? Well he went up against The Pioneer Woman and I was able to catch that episode. This dish just looked so good on the show that I had to try it and it did not disappoint. I'll be making this more often.

Boys will be boys. Our poor neighbors. Thankfully it was quite warm outside. Who needs shoes?

My Pyrex collection is growing and I was able to use most of my dishes for dinner. 

Getting the table ready. Yes, I know my tablecloth didn't get ironed. Don't judge. At least I got the thing on table. We had such an enjoyable Thanksgiving with friends and great food that I can't wait until Christmas! Bring it!

Thanksgiving Day Part 2

Not living near family can make holidays a little tricky when you’d like to hang out with them. Being married to a pastor makes travel difficult during the holidays, so we usually just stick around here and invite the world to us! That makes Skype a huge thing for which we are thankful.Though we can’t be with family over the holidays doesn’t meet we still can’t visit with them.Cousin Jyll with my Dad (Grandpa) hanging out at my brother’s house.    The kids get a kick out of seeing people moving over the computer. It’s completely different than talking on the phone.Here is cousin Lola and Uncle Jay.  So we did get to spend Thanksgiving with family…kind of. :)

Thanksgiving Day!

Here’s a little peek into our Thanksgiving! It began with some really amazing appetizers. These bacon wrapped little smokies were a cinch to make and they were a huge hit.

There was also a fiesta cheescake and phyllo wrapped brie and jam. Yum!!  

We didn’t have any complaining guests. We had great company!

My master turkey carver always dreamed of being a surgeon, so we stay out of his way while he’s carving. Look the turkey is still steaming hot after an hour out of the oven. 

The company was great and the conversation was infectious. Can you tell?   We even had some drop in guests. I love that!

You can’t have a large, wonderful meal without dessert. We were spoiled with an assortment of pies! That wasn’t the end of out Thanksgiving so you’ll have to stay tuned for more to come….